The Diamond Scorchstone
by Char84
Summary: A retired Kacheek theif is blackmailed into recovering a priceless artifact for Malkus Vile- more to come when i can be bothered writing it


Boring disclaimer: I own nothing to do with neopets, and you've just wasted your time by reading this.  
  
  
  
  
  
The Diamond Scorchstone  
  
It was nearing noon in the Lost Desert, and a single figure was sprinting through the sands far south of Sakment . It was completely covered in white robes and had a bag full of essential items for a long journey slung over its back. Despite the heat of the sun and the weight of the pack it was running as fast as it could, occasionally glancing over its shoulder as though something was following it, though nothing was in sight. Suddenly it tripped up, spilling the contents of its pack over the sand dunes. It quickly recovered, rolling onto its feet and drawing a sword of domar with its right hand.  
  
"show yourself!" The figure yelled out to the seemingly empty desert. "Come and fight me, face to face!"  
  
" That's a bit rich coming from you" Said a malevolent voice  
  
The figure spun around and slashed at the direction the voice came from with the sword of Domar.  
  
"Tsk. To slow. And now you'll pay for it with your life" Said the disembodied voice from behind the White garbed figure. A fireball materialized out of nowhere and hit the white-clothed figure in the back, setting its white robes on fire and horribly burning it. The white clothed figure screamed in pain and collasped on the ground, unconcious. The pack it had been carrying earlier suddenly levitated a few feet in the air, and hovered over the desert sands back towards Sakment.  
  
  
  
Snarl, the retired skunk Kacheek thief was dozing, half asleep in his chair when his doorbell rang, causing him to awake with such a start he fell out of it, landing on the hard marble floor. He shook his head and got up to answer the door, and had the worst surprise he'd had that year. A large skeith clad in a trenchcoat and hat was waiting on the doorstep.  
  
"Malkus... what are you doing here?" said Snarl  
  
"I've come to you with a proposition for you Snarl" said Malkus Vile with a wide grin, showing all of his many teeth  
  
"Forget it. I'm not in that line of work anymore. Good day to you." said Snarl, as he tried to shut his door, but something stopped it from closing. It was Malkus's foot.  
  
" You'll hear my proposition Snarl" said Malkus, "Or I'll signal to my friends in the house next door to release 50 clockwork grundos into your home. There won't be any piece of you left that wont fit into a matchbox. Now let me inside"  
  
Realising he had no other choice, he reluctantly opened his door, and Malkus entered and promptly sat himself in Snarls chair  
  
"You see Snarl, heres the scoop. I've managed to locate a very rare item hidden deep under the sands of the lost desert. Now I sent one of my men over to get it, but he never reported back. Either he turned tratior, or someone else had heard that he was carrying this item and had decided to forcefully take it from him. Now what I want you to do, is to go to the lost desert and recover the item, either from my agent, or the person who took it from him"  
  
"And what if I refuse?" said Snarl.  
  
"Well then" Said Malkus "The Chia cops never did find out who robbed the health food shop"  
  
"You can't prove I did that!"  
  
"Can't I Snarl? You'd be surprised how much evidence against you I've collected when you were working for me, incase a situation like this ever occured."  
  
" Very well, I'll help you. I'll need information though. What will I be looking for?"  
  
"The rarest of all the scorchstones, The Diamond Scorchstone"  
  
"Never heard of it. What does it do?"  
  
Malkus leaned towards Snarl and said  
  
"It has the power to control the sun itself. Think of it Snarl! You could turn the world into a state of eternal darkness, and hold the whole of Neopia hostage! First the plants would die, then the pets."  
  
"How do you know I wont get it and use it for myself?"  
  
"You need to know the correct words to harness its power. Only I know them, and I burnt the only book which had them in it"  
  
"I guess I'll have to help you then. What other choice do I have?" Said Snarl  
  
"Very good. Pack your things, we leave for Sakment within the hour" Said Malkus, a smug smirk on his face.  
  
  
  
Snarl had gathered as much information about the thief that had been sent by Malkus to steal the Diamond Scorchstone as he could on the trip over to the lost desert. He had learnt that he was an Aisha, with a coat of fur as white as snow. As soon as he arrived he began asking around about this Aisha, and learnt that he had recently been admitted to the Brucy B. wing of the local hospital, and that was where Snarl was now, looking at the Aisha, who was in a coma. The aishas body was covered in burns and cuts, horrendously disfiguring his face. Snarl hoped he wouldn't have to meet the Aishas attacker  
  
"Visiting time is over" Said a Gelert nurse who had just entered the room.  
  
"I was wondering, could you tell me where you found him?" Asked Snarl  
  
"I don't know, but a striped Wocky brought him in this morning, you should go ask him. I think he said his name was Sabria"  
  
"Thanks" said snarl  
  
Snarl hurried out of the hospital, and onto the street. It was getting dark, so he decided to head back to his hotel room, figuring he would get some rest and that he would question Sabria the next day. If he knew what waited for him at his Hotel, he would not of been in such a hurry to get back.  
  
Snarl collected the keys to room 34 from the Scorchio clerk downstairs, climbed the stairs tiredly. "Age must be finally catching up to me" he said to himself as he reached the 4th floor and walked down the hall. Once he had been one of the most agile Kacheeks in the thieving business, but all that had changed when he went out on a job that one night....  
  
He and his two best friends, Flip the Lenny and Pyrobolt the Wocky had decided to rob the Health food shop. It was stupid of them to even thing about it, but they were young and foolish and thought that they could rob anything or anyone. How wrong they were proven that night. Everything had gone all right at first, Pyrobolt had herded all the pets that were shopping there into one corner, and whilst Flip menaced the quiggle storeowner and took all the money he had. Their luck could not last however, for the quiggle had tripped the silent alarm, so Snarl and his friends walked right out of the bank into a police ambush. Snarl could remember every vivid detail; he still had nightmares about it sometimes. Flip was shot down where he stood outside the bank; he never even had a chance. Pyrobolt and Snarl got about 20 meters uninjured until their luck ran out, and Flip took a lightning gun blast to the chest, dropping him to the ground. Snarl had left his two best friends- his only friends- lying, dead and dying on the pavement last night, and had run away like the coward he was. After that he quit the thieving business, he just could not concentrate on a job, and the police had put a bounty on his head.  
  
Snarl entered his room, and curiously noted that there was a sheet of paper on his bed. He walked over to his bed, picked it up and read it out loud  
  
"Roses are red  
  
Violets are blue  
  
My name is Darkness  
  
And I've come to kill you".  
  
Confused, he re-read it. Was it some kind of a joke? Suddenly a figure dressed from head to toe in a deep black robe smashed through the window to his room, quite a feat as it was on the 4th floor.  
  
"Who are y-" began snarl, but before he could finish his attacker took a black, insect shaped object from his robes and pointed it at Snarl, who recognized it as a scarab and jumped out of the way just before a stream of fire enveloped the spot where he had just been standing, setting the carpet and a chest of drawers on fire.  
  
Snarl quickly took out a sparkshooter and shot at his attacker, who dodged it with ease, the lighting bolts blowing three holes in the wall. Snarls adversary took out the amulet around his neck and held in front of him. Snarl looked at the amulet, and wished that he hadn't. All the memories of the bad things he'd done came back to him, and they scared him. Scared him so much he couldn't move, even if he tried. The amulet crumbled to dust in his attackers hands, who blew it off and walked slowly towards Snarl, taking off his hood at the same time, revealing the face of a fire wocky. Snarl would of gasped if he could. He knew that face...  
  
"And now," said the Wocky with an evil grin" You will die"  
  
He grinned evilly as he took out his black scarab and pointed it at Snarls head. Snarl would have winced if he wasn't frozen solid with fear, this was the end of the line for him. But the wockys confident grin was soon replaced by one of fear as, instead of showering Snarl in fire the scarab just glowed a dim red.  
  
"Uh-oh" said the wocky, seconds before his scarab detonated in a fiery explosion, blowing him out of the window he had entered from. The heat generated by the explosion broke the power of the amulet, and Snarl found that me could move again, quickly he ran over to the window just in time to see a black clothed Wocky running away as fast as he could.  
  
Snarl didn't get much sleep that night. It wasn't the fact that the fire from his chest of drawers had spread to his bed, burning it down to the ground, so he had to sleep on the floor. He wasn't worried about his attacker coming back either, no, it was the fact that he knew his attacker that kept him awake all night, thinking about questions like "how was he still alive" and "who was he working for now?" for as far as he knew, that particular wocky had died almost 20 years ago  
  
So, what did ya think? Should I write more? I want your opinion, so review or neomail me at my account, char84 


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